Abstract

BASACA-LOYA, A et al. Aggregation behavior and rheology of culture broths of Rhodosorus marinus. Rev. mex. fis. [online]. 2008, vol.54, suppl.2, pp.119-126. ISSN 0035-001X.

We report the growth and rheological behavior of culture broths of the red microalga Rhodosorus marinus, important as a source of phyco-biliproteins. The growing process of the culture broth was controlled with and without a carbon dioxide aeration process. By dynamic light scattering measurements, we investigate the cell-exopolysaccharide (EPS) aggregation at different times of the culture broth and simultaneously, the hydrodynamic radius of the EPS in the supernatant was measured. The results indicate that the cell-EPS aggregation achieves a maximum at the stabilization stage of the culture time and at the end of the growing process, most of the cells remain disaggregated. Measurements of apparent viscosity on both, culture medium and supernatant during the growing process showed a viscoelastic behavior and give a reasonable indication of the cell and EPS maximum growth. The dry cell biomass and EPS production of Rhodosorus marinus resulted independent of the carbon dioxide aeration and were 5.7 g/l and 4.1 g/l, respectively. These are important results, compared with the ones obtained with similar microalgae.

Keywords : Microalgae; Rhodosorus marinus; viscosity; light scattering; exopolysachharides.

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